Nanjing Massacre Memorial Makes Epidemic Prevention Top Priority

Today marks the 83rd anniversary of the beginning of the Nanjing Massacre. As every year, the anniversary was commemorated in a solemn ceremony of remembrance. For 2020 however, proceedings gave full acknowledgment to the still-omnipresent threat from COVID.

Nanjing’s top brass were out in force this morning, 13 December, to pay their respects to the 300,000 who are estimated to have perished in the bloody slaughter at the hands of the Japanese that began on this day in 1937.

They were led this year by Chen Xi (陈希), member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Minister of the Organisation Department of the CPC Central Committee and President of the Central Party School.

With many attendees this morning broken into batches of 83, great importance was attached to representatives of the medical profession, as doctors and nurses who played a major role in fighting China’s COVID outbreak were among those placed forefront at the ceremony.

Across the memorial ground, strict social distancing was in place as attendees adhered rigidly to the numbered positions to which they had been carefully assigned.

Aside from during the 20-minute ceremony itself, the wearing of masks was mandatory both inside and outside the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. Attendees had each been prior given a bag in which were a raincoat, a bottle of disinfectant, a pack of alcohol wipes and a supply of no less than ten face masks.

Strict instructions were issued for masks to be removed only directly before the ceremony, together with lanyard identification, with these items replaced immediately afterward.

With the national flag at half mast since 08:00, the memorial service got under way at 10:01 with the cry of the city’s air raid sirens, the singing of the national anthem, the assembled bowing heads in observance of a minute of silence and an address by Chen.

In addition, 83 youth representatives in unison read the “Declaration of Peace”, while six representatives from all walks of life thrice rang the bell of peace.

As a fitting close to the ceremony, the release of 3,000 doves that flew over the Memorial ground served as solemn reminder of the sheer scale of the atrocity that began to unfold here in Nanjing 83 years ago today.

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Previously from The Nanjinger...